China restricts internet access to minors

The Chinese government has tightened control over online users some time ago. Namely, it adopted legislation that requires users to provide full identification to service providers. According to the Chinese authorities, this should ensure the protection of personal information, but this is not the case in practice.

Recently, however, the Chinese government changed the "rules of the game" for minors as well. It has severely limited the amount of time they can spend on the Internet. The new rules will come into effect on September 2. According to experts, these will greatly change the way of life of most Chinese minors.

According to the new legislation, users under the age of 18 will no longer be allowed to use the World Wide Web between ten in the evening and six in the morning. In addition, the amount of time minors can spend online will also be severely limited. For minors under the age of eight, time on the World Wide Web will be limited to a maximum of 40 minutes per day. Minors between the ages of eight and 12 will be able to spend up to one hour on the Internet, while children between the ages of 12 and 15 will be limited to 90 minutes. For adolescents between 16 and 17 years of age, the limit for surfing the Internet will be two hours. Users over the age of 18 will not be subject to these restrictions.

Chinese authorities are confident that minors will respect the new restrictions. Chinese institutions are known for controlling every user of the World Wide Web.